Kode9 (2010)

Benji B

Good evening everyone, how’re you feeling? Awake? More awake than twelve o’clock, yeah? Coffee? Red Bull? Stand up and make some noise for our special guest, Mr Kode9.[applause]

It’s just about waking up ’cause we’ve reached that day today. I saw a few people earlier this morning trying to stay awake. I don’t think we need to warm up unless you wanna play a tune to warm up, do you? Is there a track out of the ones you’ve got that you want to use as a warm-up, starjump tune? This is Kode9’s selected wake-up tune, so you can actually do starjumps or whatever you feel is appropriate.

(music: Remarc – “Sound Murderer”)

Yesterday we had Martyn, who selected Lemon D as his first tune. That was Kode9‘s wake-up tune of choice. What was that, sir?

Kode9

That was a tune by Remarc called “Sound Murderer”.

Benji B

When did that first come into your life?

Kode9

I started hearing those kind of tunes around ’93/’4, not that tune specifically. But I was living in Scotland, when I first started to hear jungle and I gradually got sucked in, more sucked in, and I had to leave the country and move to London and the next thing you know you’re inside it.

Benji B

And so where are you from originally?

Kode9

Originally, from Glasgow.

Benji B

And did you become Kode9 while you were still in Glasgow or after you moved to London?

Kode9

I started DJing in Edinburgh around 1991. I was running clubs in Edinburgh, but really Kode9 only appeared around 2000. I was already in London. Towards the end of the century I was playing a bit of jungle, a lot of 2-step, UK garage, so that’s when Kode9 reared his head.

Benji B

I know a lot of people in the room have been excited about this lecture because you’ve got an almost cult-like following through Hyperdub, and as a DJ and label man as well. But for those, who aren’t familiar with you as a DJ/producer, do you want to give us a quick overview before we go in deep on each area of what the main things are in your life?

Kode9

Well, I suppose most people know the stuff I do in relation to dubstep. I started playing the darker or more dubbed-out side of UK garage ’round about ’99. That evolved into dubstep, eventually. I suppose, that’s what myself and Hyperdub are most known for. But anyone who knows my DJ sets recently, and the releases from Hyperdub over the last few years, know it ranged a bit wider into aspects of hip-hop, aspects of house. It’s become a lot broader reaching and closer to what my actual taste in music is, rather than just one micro mini-genre.

Benji B

I suppose, some people who aren’t familiar with you might go ‘Kode9 = dubstep’. And obviously you’re a huge fan of the music around that genre and have done an amazing amount of work to forward that. But when they come to hear you as a DJ, it’s so broad, you might even hear a Prince record thrown in. How’s it been leading and spearheading this music movement but at the same time wanting to express all those sides of your musical personality?

Kode9

I tend to think when my DJ sets become more eclectic, it’s because there’s a problem with the genres I’ve become associated with or emotionally invested myself in. Usually, as a DJ, you like to beat-match, but it’s the problem with jungle and garage, and to a certain extent with dubstep and grime as well. You want every music possible in the universe attached to the specific tempo you play, so you can go anywhere but you’re still in the zone, tempo-wise. I think my sets have become a bit more eclectic recently because I’m not fulfilled by the genres I’ve been associated with. So I do DJ sets that cross tempos, it’s just me hunting around for the stuff that inspires me.

Benji B

Have you become uninspired by certain elements of that because it’s too formulaic or you’re too used to it?

Kode9

I’m certainly uninspired by most of what I hear as dubstep these days. There are certain producers who, for me, have remained consistent and that’s the dubstep I try to play. Generally, as I’ve said, if you feel uninspired or unfulfilled by the little musical world you live in, then you have to go hunting so wide. If anything, I still feel there’s a consistent vibe in what I play. But certain sides of grime and UK funky, the style of house, that’s been coming through London in the last few years, I find really inspiring again.

It’s not so different in vibe to the kind of dubstep I always liked. You just make your own little genre. When you’re dissatisfied with the musical genre you live in, you have to construct your own little world. I’ve had to do that more and more over the last couple of years.

Benji B

When we were sitting next door and I asked you to name some tracks you’d like to play for reference, the first six you told me were a jazz tune, a jungle tune, a disco or boogie-disco record, a deep Rhythm & Sound-type dub house record, it was immediately broad. Which one of those should we go to first and why?

Kode9

A Miles Davis tune? My dad was into jazz and I liked listening to his tapes, but it only really got inside me when I started hearing more electronic stuff. Particularly Miles Davis’ early ’70s stuff, like Bitches Brew, Big Fun and one of my favourite albums, which is On The Corner. This track encapsulates the whole album in a way because the whole album manages to synthesise influences from Indian music, synthesizer music, funk, rock, jazz into one track. So it’s clearly a fusion. Often, when I hear a fusion it’s a fusion of things you don’t want to hear.

This track always stayed with me since when I first heard it about 20 years ago. The main thing I like about it is the rhythm pattern. It’s got this kind of angular disjointed rhythm thing, which is a consistent line through a lot of the music I’ve enjoyed, jungle, through to dubstep and grime and a lot of the instrumental hip-hop and R&B that’s around right now. So it’s got a groove to it but it’s got these alien sounds that come from nowhere. That’s why it’s always stuck with me. This track’s called “Black Satin".

(music: Miles Davis – “Black Satin”)

Benji B

So that’s Miles Davis taken from which album?

Kode9

On The Corner.

Benji B

When did you first come into contact with that?

Kode9

Must have been the late ’80s. I had a period in the early ’90s when I had a particularly intense experience in a club in Edinburgh called Chocolate City, which was a rare groove club. I was hearing a certain style of funk track I hadn’t heard before, tracks that had synths I’d never heard before, things like Fred Wesley - “Blow Your Head", these droney wiggly synths. So it was maybe just before that, late ’80s, early ’90s.

Benji B

Before we play some more music, I think it’s relevant to talk a bit more about clubbing experience in Scotland. Obviously, the Academy’s in London, we’ve had Norman Jay talking about Shake ‘n’ Fingerpop, Carnival and so many people able to share their clubbing experiences from Metalheadz all the way to Dingwalls and whatnot. As a London resident you’re well placed to compare your London clubbing experiences to those in Glasgow. Could you talk about your clubbing times then?

Kode9

When I was growing up I didn’t really go to clubs, it was only when I moved to Edinburgh that I started raving properly. There was a venue, closed now, it’s been redeveloped into flats, but there was a venue called The Venue.

There were two nights, one called Pure, which was a hardcore techno night, very famous, run by the guys from Optimo.

And this other club on the Thursday night called Chocolate City run by a guy from London, that was a kind of microcosm of some of the scenes that were going on in London at the time, funk and jazz-related stuff. So my formative raving was these two nights, Thursday and Friday night in the same venue, totally different kinds of music, but very influential on me.

Then occasionally there used to be these warehouse rave parties outside of Edinburgh called Resurrection, where everybody had these white gloves on and their gas masks with Vicks Vapour rub inside. They were quite eye-opening experiences. I didn’t know clubbing outside of that until about ’94/’95 when I went out in London for the first time and heard jungle and drum ‘n’ bass raving experiences, which took it up a level.

Benji B

I’m assuming your move to London was purely music-motivated.

Kode9

Well, I lived in London for a summer in the mid-’90s, but didn’t move here until about ’99. But from when I heard jungle I felt a very strong but low- power magnet sucking me south. It took about six years to work, because I moved into the Midlands, and gradually it kept sucking me further south until it finally got me and captured me. And I haven’t really been able to escape since. I used to escape every weekend but it always drags me back.

Benji B

What kind of relationship do you have with the city?

Kode9

Hate it, shithole [laughs]. It’s a love-hate relationship [laughs].

Benji B

For people who aren’t from the United Kingdom, I want you to put into context the feeling this brings. Scotland-England, all of the subtlety going on there for a start, but whether you were torn between wanting to stay where you’re from and wanting to move to where the music was.

Kode9

I’m actually here doing espionage for the Irn-Bru Music Academy [laughter]. What was the question?

Benji B

We don’t have to stay there, we can move on if you want. I just wondered if it was tough moving.

Kode9

No, my parents are English, I’m only a part-time Scot. But it was music that got me to London, it’s music that made me stay.

Benji B

Instead of going back to the influences, do you mind playing one of your songs, something up to date? “Black Sun” maybe.

Kode9

It’s not up to date.

Benji B

Alright, you know what I mean. This came out last year, right?

Kode9

Came out last year but I made it in the middle of 2008. [fiddles with turntable] Nice deck, gold.

Benji B

And this is on your label?

Kode9

Yeah, this is on Hyperdub.

(music: Kode9 – “Black Sun” / applause)

Benji B

“Black Sun”, available to buy now on Hyperdub Recordings, which is a label that’s been going for five and a little bit years, last summer being its anniversary.

Kode9

We did a fifth anniversary compilation last year, a double CD, one of the last five years and one of new stuff.

Benji B

And unlike many artists, there’s only a couple of labels apart from your one that you’ve released records on, is that right?

Kode9

Yeah, I’ve released on Tempa, “Fat Larry’s Skank” in 2001/’02, Soul Jazz, a couple of tracks, “Stun” and “Magnetic City”.

Benji B

So with that in mind, was your label primarily a vehicle to release your own music?

Kode9

That’s really the reason why I started it in the first place. I was interviewing Kevin Martin, aka The Bug, for XLR8R Magazine round about 2001/2002, and I gave him a CD of a couple of tracks I was working on. And on there was a track called “Sine Of The Dub,” which was a cover of Prince’s “Sign O’ The Times.” He kind of liked it and said, “Oh, that’s good, you should release that.” I said, “I can’t be bothered to make someone like it.” It was beatless, a bass pulse with a Jamaican spoken-word vocal over the top. It wasn’t the most obvious thing where someone would say: “Yeah, great, lets release that.” I just gave it to him because I thought he might be interested, having heard his earlier stuff. He was enthusiastic enough and he hooked me up with a distributor as well, so he made it easy for me. It’s really all his fault.

Benji B

Since the label has evolved into a vehicle to release other artists as well, what was your vision, your mission statement?

Kode9

There wasn’t a mission statement originally. When you hear music you like and gives you a tingle in your stomach, it’s hard to put that into words and call that a mission statement. Now the label is almost six years old I feel I know what the mission is: I just want to release the best producers from all the genres I like. That’s a simple mission statement.

Benji B

It is simple, but in the lecture with Martyn yesterday and in conversation with Flying Lotus, I think one thing in common among artists I like is that they have their own sound. Also, that’s applicable to your label. Although I couldn’t say Hyperdub is this or that label in terms of genre, it definitely has a texture or a sound and people will immediately know whether a record would fit or not.

Kode9

I don’t think it’s a particularly eclectic label, although I’m still working out what that consistency is. But I think there is a consistency to what comes out on the label and increasingly I’m starting to think maybe it’s nice, like science fiction, you just make up your own little genre that cuts across your favourite genres, joins the dots between dubstep, grime, funky, hip-hop, house, reggae. And that’s its own little cosmos.

Benji B

Talking of Martyn and FlyLo, you’re playing tonight with them and that’s not the first Brainfeeder show you have done. How did that connection come about?

Kode9

I met Flying Lotus when I was doing this in the Red Bull Music Academy in Melbourne three or four years ago. I met him on the roof of the building and we kept in contact, started some tunes together that we never finished. My fault. These Americans only spend a couple of minutes on tunes and it seems to be done, whereas, you know... they all make really short tracks as well. Weirdos. Especially the ones from LA [laughs]. Hippies, god! What was the question [laughter]?

Benji B

Don’t worry, Steve. With that in mind, with everything cross-pollinating, you being able to put Samiyam out as well as Burial on the same label, doing nights with FlyLo, Martyn, Daedelus and so on, it feels like a very healthy time, music-wise and things are cross-pollinating and good music is prevailing. Is it a good time for you to have a label?

Kode9

I’m enjoying it, it’s very stressful, but I think everyone’s enjoying it who is involved in all these little island scenes that are somehow connected. The reason I was laughing is because I have this memory of Martyn saying Brainfeeder crew is like the Muppets, everyone’s a different creature, each Muppet coming from its own world.

Benji B

You’ve set me up with a great question.

Kode9

Which Muppet am I? I don’t know, but he’s right when he says Gaslamp Killer is Animal.

Benji B

But that’s just so easy.

[inaudible from audience]

Benji B:

Oh, look. Willy’s here. What’s up?

Kode9

I thought I was Miss Piggy secretly [laughter].

[inaudible]

Kode9:

I didn’t know you cared.

Benji B

So talk to me about some of the other artists you’ve signed and released over the last few years ’cause it really is quite diverse.

Kode9

Obviously, the most famous one is Burial.

Benji B

Let’s go there first. Were you aware when you put it out that it would be so phenomenally successful?

Kode9

We were scared that it wouldn’t sell 500, so no. It was mainly because we hadn’t put an album out before, it was going into new territory. We were selling 500 10"s at the time, so it was taking a step forward, you tread tentatively. We didn’t really have any ambition for the label, but the Burial stuff went down very well and it was one surprise after another surprise. Burial was the first artist I released on the label who wasn’t myself and Spaceape.

Benji B

How many records did that sell?

Kode9

The first one? About 30 to 40,000 of the CD, 5 to 10,000 of the vinyl.

Benji B

[inaudible question]

Kode9

A lot more.

Benji B

Ballpark?

Kode9

[pause] More.

Benji B

Just to put it in context, for those of us who don’t run a label, for the average specialist artist, what would you anticipate selling on a good day?

Kode9

We mostly sell 12”s and they do 1200 to 3500. Ten years ago, 15 years ago, is a joke to be honest. I know that drum ‘n’ bass, house, techno in the ’90s, you could triple that, quadruple it, and more. Big dance records, people could live off the record sales. That’s a very rare phenomenon in underground music these days.

We’re all having fun but things are very different from the ’90s. Clearly, what’s happened is there’s been a rock/indie resurgence and the idea of a faceless dance music is slightly out of vogue these days.

Benji B

Do you think the cycle is coming back ’round?

Kode9

I’m not sure it is, I think we’re still losing out to the guitars.

Benji B

But talking of faceless, how do you explain little or no press for a producer selling 30,000 of his first record? That’s not a bad look for an independent label that needs it to survive.

Kode9

It’s certainly helped the label to survive, it means we don’t have to care whether other producers sell or not, which is obviously great. We don’t have to use business to make aesthetic decisions. But Burial is still the exception, people try to sound like him but no one can quite sounds like him, nobody has that level of emotion packed into the tracks. Since Burial, there has been a spate of people trying to do that faceless thing, but it doesn’t wash for me, it seems a bit contrived.

The unique thing about Burial, no matter how much cynicism his anonymity seemed to create among people who just didn’t trust that it wasn’t a marketing ploy, it was just a naïve, innocent desire not to be in the spotlight and known for anything apart from his music. What was the question?

Benji B

I remember when that record was nominated for a Mercury Prize and opening The Sun newspaper – and The Sun, for those of you not from the UK, is a tabloid that has the highest circulation beyond any other paper – on page five it was: “Who is Burial? We’re on a mission to unmask Burial.” What was that whole time like for you as label manager, were you getting phone calls from the tabloid newspapers?

Kode9

It was pretty horrible, actually. That track “Black Sun” actually came from a burnt copy of The Sun newspaper. It was just annoying, really irritating. The journalist who wrote that was Scottish so it was particularly embarrassing [laughs]. I was burning kilts.

All the guy wants to do is lead a quiet life, and it’s not as if he’s a politician or Paris Hilton, someone who’s actively seeking attention. He’s not Paris Hilton, by the way, in case anyone thought that was a clue to his real identity. Strange thought [laughter]. It makes you recoil and close down the ranks, it just makes you want to hide and not speak to anyone, not speak to the press at all, don’t tell anyone anything, just be really secretive. I don’t think it’s a healthy reaction to have.

Benji B

It is quite rare for an independent record label to have sales like that, so have you had hostile bids from people trying to sign him? I guess, he’s the kind of character who’s interested in staying loyal to you anyway.

Kode9

He’s just not bothered, to be honest. He’s living, getting on with his life. I think there were a few approaches through the backdoor, MySpace and so on. I sniffed out a couple of people and put the shutters up.

Benji B

Do you want to play us something from Burial or anyone else on the label?

Kode9

It should probably be Burial. This is one of my favourite Burial tracks, it’s the first track off his first album, it’s called “Distant Lights.”

(music: Burial – “Distant Lights”)

Burial, "Distant Lights” off the first Burial album, also on the Hyperdub five year compilation.

Benji B

And that compilation is a great start if you haven’t got any Hyperdub. There’s Darkstar, Samiyam, FlyLo, Burial, Cooly G, Zomby, Ikonika, Martyn, Joker. What about some future people you’re gonna be releasing?

Kode9

We’ve just released a couple of tracks by an artist who’s new to Hyperdub but actually quite well established, Terror Danjah, a grime producer who’s right up there with Wiley as one of the most well-known and best grime producers. We’ve just done a 12 from him with another coming in a few months. Some tracks by a part-time grime producer, part-time funky producer called Scratcha who goes by the name of DVA. He does the breakfast shows on Rinse FM. I’ll just play some quick snippets.

(music: DVA – “Natty”)

(music: Terror Danjah – “Acid”)

Benji B

Terror Danjah, right?

Kode9

He’s always been one of my favourite drum producers, rhythm producers. That’s the last two releases, Natty and Acid. The next release is by one guy who’s 18 or 19, from Detroit, called Kyle Hall. We’ve got a 12 coming from him in a few weeks, which is two tracks, one called “You Know What I Feel”, the other “Kaychunk”.

Benji B

It seems to be you’re really supportive of extra-young producers like Ikonika, Cooly G, obviously, Kyle is super-young. How do you find them? Do you feel you want to put them on before they’re ready, or do you just make sure that everything is up to a certain standard before you release it?

Kode9

I’m not so interested in releasing music by people that are “ready.” If someone’s released loads of music on loads of labels, good luck to them. I don’t know what Hyperdub’s function is, but I’m not sure it’s releasing music by people who are already releasing loads of stuff. Although that contradicts what I’ve just said ’cause obviously Terror Danjah has been releasing stuff for about 10 years.

Benji B

I just think it’s inspiring that you’re so encouraging of brand new talent from Detroit, London, whatever, and you’re willing to put out records from 18/19-year olds that no one’s heard of yet because people trust you as a tastemaker.

Kode9

The guy I’m running the label with, Marcus, has got amazing taste, great ears, is a great A&R and it was him that introduced me to Kyle Hall. So we work quite well together in that respect. Let me just play you a bit of this track, just check it’s the right one. This one’s called “You Know What I Feel”.

(music: Kyle Hall – “You Know What I Feel”)

Benji B

Nice little future Hyperdub preview. Now, I’ve got to say I do not know many label heads/DJs/musical visionaries who’ve also got a PhD and have written a book. What’s your PhD in?

Kode9

It’s in philosophy, specifically about philosophy in warfare, information warfare and philosophy in physics and cybernetics. So the book is all that stuff. Nothing to do with music, all that got thrown into a big pot with some of the musical issues I’m interested in, not as a producer, just a researcher. So there it is.

Benji B

In terms of sound, though, you are a scientist. Whenever I DJ with you, most people when they have the opportunity to soundcheck just choose a record they think will be good. I’ve heard you use pink noise, white noise, frequency tests. The science of sound is obviously important enough for you that you’ve written a book called Sonic Warfare: Sound Effect And The Ecology Of Fear.

Kode9

I’ve never done that in a soundcheck, I think it must have been a dubplate and made loads of crackle. In soundchecks I tend to just play tracks I like, mostly off dubplate because it tends to sound rounder and warmer for me. I usually use a Mala track on dubplate to soundcheck with ’cause if the system can handle that – he doesn’t put a lot of midrange in his tracks – amount of space and width of sub, then it’s usually good. But those records are usually in a bad state, so that’ll be the pink noise, whitenoise, black noise.

Benji B

Sonic warfare, what is that?

Kode9

It’s the book.

Benji B

Thanks, Steve [laughter]. But in terms of frequency, obviously sonic warfare is something that was tested by the US military officially, I’m not sure if that’s how you talk about it here. But frequency does have a psychological and physical effect. Is that something you go into in this book? Is it something you’re particularly interested in?

Kode9

The book’s basically about the politics of frequency. So there’s frequency in the military context of the US army using acoustic weaponry in Iraq or the Israeli Airforce doing low-flying...

Benji B

Can you give us an example of where in a military setting people have used sound before?

Kode9

An early example I give in the book was in the colonial period in Jamaica, there was a tribe called the Maroons. They used a horn called an abeng and used it to communicate in the jungle secretly and not so secretly. But what became apparent was that the English colonialists became petrified of this sound. They didn’t know what it was, they were in the jungle, out of their home turf. Not only that, but these were coupled with the planning of ambushes. It was basically early guerrilla warfare, they’d camouflage in the jungle, and just like the film Predator, the jungle would come alive and take the British.

So that’s an interesting example for the book, because the book is about the way certain frequencies create fear, uneasy listening, the way sound’s used to create a bad vibe. It’s not something I try to do as a musician or a DJ, but it’s something I’m interested in theoretically.

Benji B

So it’s more about the ecology of fear rather than bass, what frequencies can do to us psychologically?

Kode9

Yes, bass is just an example, there’s lots of bass in the book. It’s a good example of the physicality of sound. Whether you can hear it or not, you can feel the vibration. But there’s also lots of stuff about high-frequency sounds, sounds that are so high you can’t hear them but they still have neural effects, change the way you feel. So a lot of the book is about the sounds you can’t hear, either too low in frequency or too high in frequency.

Benji B

So having delved into those dog frequencies, how does that affect you in turn when you’re making your own music? Do you know which are the bad frequencies to eliminate?

Kode9

I can’t finish tracks anyway so it makes no difference. No, I know it’s natural for people to want to see the connection between the book and my music, and clearly there is some. But really there’s not, it’s a different person.

Benji B

It must be difficult though when you’re in a project as deep as a book, when you’re off doing gigs on Saturday not to think about it, to keep both separate.

Kode9

I just think it’s healthy practice to keep them separate. If they all came together I’d implode in a puff of smoke, just disintegrate.

Benji B

And how long did this project take for this to come together?

Kode9

It didn’t take long once I’d got the contract, but it takes ages, like three or four years, to get the contract. Then, two or three years to finish it once I had a book contract. Again, a lot of the core ideas that weren’t musical developed when I was doing a PhD, so the hard job was translating that into sound-related stuff and not just being about computer networks, warfare, guerrilla warfare, information warfare.

Benji B

Not only are you an author, label head, DJ, but you’re a lecturer as well.

Kode9

I teach music culture-related stuff, film sound, sound design at the University of East London. I’ve just come from there today.

Benji B

How do you find it balancing all these different hats you wear? [long pause]. Next! Music and education. There’s an argument that says music in the academic world, or over-intellectualising it, can kill it for you or is unnecessary. What are your findings in that, being directly involved in academic music?

Kode9

The way I see academia is the way I see music: most of it is crap, the good stuff is good. I really don’t agree with that idea that, if you conceptualise about music, you kill the vibe. If you conceptualise badly, and maybe I do it badly in the book, but if you do it badly, you kill a vibe. Just like if you’re making bad music you clear the dance, do a bad mix you clear the dancefloor.[pause] Which dog story? You got me worried then.

Benji B

It is related to frequency, I think you were telling me about DJing in a festival.

Kode9

I’m not sure how it’s related.

Benji B

You were talking about clearing dancefloors, frequency, DJ nightmares.

Kode9

This is an example of if only I had people on the dancefloor to clear. We were playing some festival in Italy, Pescara, I think it was, and the festival is dominated by trance music. And there was a huge fascist rally trance tent. Sorry to any trance producers here. No, I’m not that sorry, actually. [laughter]. And I was playing, Plastician, Carl Craig, we were all playing in the same tent. There was a priceless moment in the middle of our set.

Literally, there was no one there and there were 4,000 trance fascists in the next-door tent, and this black labrador walks up into the middle of the dancefloor. It was a festival on a beach, so the black labrador probably strolls out of the ocean, sits in the middle of the dancefloor, stares at us for a bit, stands up, takes a shit, and walks off. But I don’t believe in this idea that certain frequencies can make you go to the toilet.

Benji B

Anyway, maybe we should play another record after that story, I don’t know how to top it. Play another tune, then I’ll ask you if you’ve got any questions too. Can you play one of yours?

Kode9

I was going to say this is one of the few tracks I’ve finished recently, but I don’t think it’s finished yet. This is something I’ve done recently, it’s currently called “Skank,” but it might change.

(music: Kode9 – “Skank”)

(music: Kode9 – “Uzi”)

Benji B

OK, question time. Who’s got a question? Of course, why break tradition [laughter]?

Kode9

What does that mean?

Audience Member

It’s the first time I’m asking a question, actually [laughter]. Hyperdub, like many labels in the last 10 years, started out as a blog. Is that right?

Kode9

It wasn’t so much a blog as a mini-web magazine.

Audience Member

OK, so you have a mini-web magazine and start posting content. What’s the next step to becoming a successful label?

Kode9

What was the bit in between the magazine and the label? Getting bored with running a magazine, not having enough time, having interviewed all the producers I wanted to interview. Getting pretty bored with my one-year self- employed career as a journalist, during which I’d write my own website.

Audience Member

But how did the releases start happening? How did it become a label?

Kode9

Because a friend of mine, Kevin Martin, was enthusiastic enough about some of the tracks I’d been working on with Space Ape, then called Daddy Gee. I suppose, part of it was getting bored trying to make other people like the music, trying to get signed to another label, getting bored of that process. So he helped us hook up some distribution. That’s it, really. Everything else is boring, getting tracks mastered, blah, blah, blah.

Audience Member

And you’re probably the right person to ask this: what’s the hardcore continuum?

Kode9

I’m not the right person to ask, but I’ll tell you what it is anyway. It’s quite a good way of describing a certain evolution of UK music from hardcore, drum & bass, speed garage, UK garage, grime, dubstep, bassline house, UK funky. In the sense America has hip-hop, we in this country have the hardcore continuum

Participant

Yes, of course, the boom bap tradition. But what I mean is UK funky seems to come from another place.

Kode9

Why do you think it comes from another place?

Audience Member

Because it sounds different, the bpm is different.

Kode9

But the BPM between dubstep, grime and jungle is all different.

Participant

Of course, but it’s all bass music, I guess. UK funky has this other soca-sounding stuff.

Kode9

[long pause] No, is the answer to that [laughter].

Audience Member

I was just interested, you touched on this before, but when you come up to a gig, probably at a venue that you’ve never played before, and you’re trying to work out a soundsystem, is there a process that you go through or do you just hope for the best?

Kode9

I’m not scientific about it at all. I’ll just get a dubplate I know has got a lot of bass, a particular record I’m used to hearing on lots of different systems sounds. Sometimes it sounds terrible, I start complaining. Really, this is what the Politics Of Frequency is about and how it affects me as a DJ, it’s about me fighting sound engineers in clubs for more bass.

Benji B

Here it says: “It’s the trans-disciplinarian micro politics of frequency that breaks with the orthodoxies of phenomenology and cultural studies.” That doesn’t sound like fighting with the sound engineer [laughter]. Or if it does, it’s a bit of a fancy way of saying it.

Kode9

Fighting with the sound engineer is how the politics of frequency works on me as a DJ. But that’s got nothing to do with the book. You hear a record you’re used to on a soundsystem that you’re not used to and usually it doesn’t sound so good, so you try to work out with the sound engineer how to improve it.

On a lot of systems the bass frequencies sound very muddy. Either you won’t hear the low-end frequencies at all, or you’ll hear them but you won’t feel them. Or it’ll sound very muddy because the system is tuned up for house and they’re not used to sub-60Hz frequencies. It’s all just trial and error, it’s always completely different. The only thing’s that’s consistent is that I tend to play records by producers that I know their dubplates will test the system. If the system can deal with that you know, everything else is okay.

Audience Member

How would you recommend making a track with low, low, low-end bass? Does it have to do with the equipment, the monitors?

Kode9

It’s not difficult to do, I’m not particularly technical or scientific about bass frequencies. I don’t use a lot of those higher mid-range bass sounds that are filtered and do all kinds of crazy wobbling. I just use a basic sinewave sub and usually you’ll have some sort of fight going on between the sub and the kick drum and there’s ways of dealing with that. Sometimes you win that battle, sometimes you don’t. I feel I’m always losing it.

Getting low-end on a track isn’t rocket science, it’s more to do with your ears and preference. But there are certain technical things I’m not so good at, that other people told me about, that certain bass notes tend to translate because they have a lot of resonance with the higher frequencies, the octaves higher and so on.

So I tend to build tracks from the bottom up, starting with the sub, like you would with a house. You build the foundations, construct on top of that then it all caves in. But there’s really nothing technical I’d recommend to people. If you like low-end frequencies, it’s not difficult to put them in your music. It’s difficult to make space around low-end frequencies and keep them from sounding flabby and muddy and not drowning out frequencies that have got nothing do with the low- end.

Often, if your sub is too high your snare will get drowned out, even if it’s a completely different frequency. I find that in my own music all the time. Where’s the snare gone? It’s disappeared in this swamp of low-end. Obviously, there are certain things you can do with your kicks and your subs and the way they interrelate, you can side-chain it so that when the kick comes in the sub dips. So it’s like carving out a hole in the sub so there’s space for the kick. But that’s the kind of question I would ask someone else.

Benji B

Any more questions? Going once, twice, oooh! I’m afraid it’s participants only at this time of night and any time of day thereof. So is this book out to buy and are you around for more than half and hour now if participants wish to have a quick chat with you afterwards?

Kode9

Yeah, sure.

Benji B

What’s your set time tonight?

Kode9

2.30. I’m playing back to back with Martyn, 2.30 till 4.00.

Benji B

Can you get a track to play us on the way out. And while he’s doing that can you all join me in saying Kode9, thank you very much indeed.